Suppliers and the environment
Climate change, water scarcity, over-exploitation of resources and unsustainable farming practices are all serious factors threatening our food security and the long-term sustainability of agricultural production.
Source: Marine Harvest
Our ability to continue to supply our customers with high quality food and drink at fair prices depends upon the long term sustainability of our business. Failure to address the social and environmental impacts of our food supply chain will, in the long term, undermine the economic success of our business. We can only have a genuinely resilient food supply if our products are produced and cultivated in a sustainable manner. We are already working with our suppliers to do just that – to manage key resources like fish, timber, palm oil and water more responsibly and minimise the impact on the environment. This is good for us, good for our customers and good for our suppliers too since it helps make their businesses more efficient and more sustainable in the long term.
Fish
According to the ‘State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture’ report produced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in 2008, between 75% and 80% of the world’s major fisheries are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted. This is why we are so committed to sourcing our fish in a sustainable and responsible way.
We offer the largest range of own label Marine Stewardship Council certified fish in the UK. We sell over 60 MSC products and in 2009 our sales of MSC-certified fish reached over £62 million, an increase of 65% on the year before.
MSC certification is only available on some fish products, and in other cases we use our own unique fish sustainability rating system. We developed our traffic light sustainability rating system in 2006, by working closely with the Marine Conservation Society, suppliers, campaigners and industry experts. Our sourcing system considers the health of the fish stocks, how well the fishery is being managed and the impact of fishing on the environment. All our fish is now covered by this traffic light rating system, and we are on track to convert our top five fish species to green status by the end of 2010. These five species cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns represent 80% of our sales.
Highlights so far:
- We were awarded an ‘A’ rating in the Consumer Focus ‘Green Supermarket Survey’ in November 2009, achieving ‘Excellent’ in the fish category
- All our fresh and smoked farmed salmon is ‘Responsibly Sourced’, 100% Scottish and meets the Freedom Food Standard
- All our wild salmon is MSC-certified, including canned wild salmon
- All our Yellowfin tuna is line caught
- All our fresh and frozen haddock and Atlantic cod is line-caught, from responsibly managed fisheries in Iceland and Norway
- All our canned tuna is caught by pole and line
Timber
We are very aware of the important contribution trees have on our planet and communities. Forests cover 30% of the planet's total land area and six million hectares of forest are lost every year through deforestation and degradation. Trees are of paramount importance to our business and as such we have recently committed to plant one million trees over the next five years.
We are working with partners like Woodland Trust to support UK woodland regeneration and national tree planting. We were a founding member of the WWF Forest and Trade Network, which is committed to responsible certification of the world’s forests.
We expect our suppliers to hold detailed Chain of Custody for any wood or fibre used in our products so that we can be sure no illegal materials have been used. We are also working with our suppliers around the world to help build their capacity to manufacture products with sources that are traceable, from tree to shop.
In 2009, 88% of the wood used for Sainsbury’s products was made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or recycled sources. By the end of 2010, all the natural corks used to bottle our own brand bottles of wine, spirits and beer will be FSC certified.
“We continue to applaud Sainsbury’s commitment to FSC and the example it is setting by reaching such high percentages of FSC-certified timber-based products on their shelves. The decision to continue with natural cork closures deserves special praise. Others are turning to the screw caps and synthetic closures, but Sainsbury’s recognises that cork is one of the most sustainable of all natural products. A cork oak tree is happy to surrender its bark every nine years and will still live for centuries, throughout which time a cork oak forest helps to support a host of rare and endangered animals.”
Sainsbury’s products made from FSC-certified or 100% recycled materials
- Tissues
- Cork
- Toilet rolls
- Paper tableware
- Stationery
- Kitchen towels
- Christmas cards and wrapping paper (apart from metalised products where this was not possible)
- Garden furniture
- Barbeque charcoal and briquettes
Case study
Forest Stewardship Council cork
Natural cork is still used in a wide variety of wines, spirits and beers, and we sell over six million bottles sealed with cork closures every year. For the wines where we choose to use natural cork, we ensure that all the cork we use comes from sustainably managed forests. By switching the sourcing of our natural corks to FSC certified cork, we aim to be the largest user of FSC-certified cork in the world by early 2011.
Cork oak trees have a unique ability to regenerate after their bark has been harvested, which means the forests create exceptionally valuable eco-systems. FSC certification looks in detail at a producer's conservation and harvesting practices, and is the best way to encourage biodiversity and protect this special environment for the long-term benefit of local communities.
Water
Water is already a significant social, environmental and economic issue and is becoming more so. Unlike carbon, the impact of water use is specific to a particular locality. Knowing this, we are taking a leading and active role in industry groups like IGD, who are food and grocery experts, to promote a better understanding among our suppliers of the issues relating to water usage, both direct and indirect. We are also engaging with growers and local stakeholder groups in water shortage 'hotspots', through our Crop Sustainability Groups.
We are developing a comprehensive Water Strategy and plan to launch it later in 2010. In the meantime we are working with our suppliers, farmers and growers to understand and improve their water efficiency and encourage better water stewardship by those firms that supply products where water use is a particularly sensitive issue.
Carbon footprinting
We are also building on our experience with carbon footprinting from the Sainsbury's Dairy Development Groups and are rolling out the tool to other species. This year we will be carbon footprinting beef, lamb, pig and poultry farms to help them reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint.
Palm oil
Increased demand for palm oil is a major contributor to deforestation and climate change; this is why we have set ourselves the goal of using only certified palm oil across our entire product range by the end of 2014. In May 2008 our 'basics' frozen fish fingers were the first British supermarket food product to use palm oil from certified Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) sustainable sources. We were also the first retailer to make all of our own brand digestive and rich tea biscuits using only RSPO certified product. We sell over 300 million of these biscuits every year, so this is a significant contribution. Since we started using only sustainable palm oil in our 'basics' fish fingers, sales doubled within 12 months.
We also want to make it easier for customers to see whether there is palm oil in our products, instead of using the more generic term 'vegetable oil' as many other companies still do. We were the first supermarket to identify palm oil on the labels of all fresh and chilled food and completed similar labelling on all Sainsbury's food products in 2009. All the same, we still need to source higher quantities of sustainable palm oil and as part of this effort we are working with our suppliers on the ground to drive industry-wide changes in sourcing practices. We have established our own tracker to identify the sources of palm oil in our own products. This has helped us to identify our top 20 major users of palm oil and we are now working with them to make the move to certified supplies.
“Sainsbury's has been a strong support in the development of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) since the beginning. By making its public commitment of using only certified palm oil by 2014, it sent a strong signal to the market. Sainsbury's is walking the talk on palm oil sustainability, setting an example to others.”
“Sainsbury's can be proud of its record on palm oil. It is an active member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and it has been one of the earliest movers on sourcing certified sustainable palm oil - which is the only way to guarantee that the palm oil a company is using has not caused unacceptable forest loss or damaged valuable wildlife like the orang-utan. Sainsbury's scored well in WWF's Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard in 2009, which reflects this good work and shows others that it is possible to do the right thing. However, like every other palm oil user, it still needs to do more to reach its target of using only sustainable palm oil by 2014.”
Our key commitments
- Sourcing responsibly and ethically
We will be the largest UK retailer of Fairtrade products (by sales value)
Next steps
- Our long-term target is to have all our wood sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council ( FSC) and we aim that 90% of our wood products will be FSC certified by 2012
- We aim to be the largest user of FSC-certified cork in the world by early 2011
- We aim for our five biggest-selling fish species to be MSC-certified or green-rated against our own sustainability standard by the end of 2010
- We aim to use only certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2014
- We will work with informed stakeholders to research and identify best practice in water usage across our supply chain
- We are aiming to increase the number of supplier visits we carry out every year, and open more non-food supply offices in the Far East, which will help us get closer to our suppliers there
Our views on the issues that are important to our stakeholders.
